Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sampler, and more particularly, to a sampler which can mix a reagent with a specimen to form a diluted solution and can quantitatively discharge the diluted solution.
Background Art
In general, analysis of a fluid sample has been widely used not only in the fields of chemistry and biotechnology but also in the field of diagnosis through analysis of blood and body fluids extracted from a patient.
Recently, in order to analyze such a fluid sample more simply and effectively, compact-size analysis and diagnosis apparatuses of various kinds have been developed.
In the meantime, one of important things to analyze the fluid sample is to preprocess the fluid sample.
Here, preprocessing of the fluid sample means to extract a specimen of a wanted amount before analysis of the fluid sample and to exactly treat the extracted specimen at a proper ratio, for instance, using a dilution buffer, or to mix the specimen with a solid or liquid reagent, or to separate and refine the specimen utilizing a filler or a supporter.
For this, typically, the fluid sample is preprocessed using a pipette or a dropper. However, in the case of a sample analysis of a lab-on-a-chip or lab-on-a-tip unit, because the sample used for preprocessing is very small in quantity and must be processed very accurately, it is not easy to accurately preprocess a very small amount of the sample using the pipette or the dropper.
Moreover, in the field inspection method, the extracted sample is preprocessed, and then, inputted into a measuring device, but in the inputting step, there occurs an error in amount of the inputted sample.
Therefore, in handling the very small amount of blood or other sample, necessity of a sampler, which can minimize the error in handling a very small amount of blood or sample and make the handling process easy so that unskilled persons can use it after listening to a simple explanation, is on the rise.